I’d never heard of this little gem up in the Santa Cruz mountains near Felton until this weekend, but it sounded so intriguing that we had to check it out. Quail Hollow Ranch is a 300 acre historic horse ranch and nature preserve boasting a plethora of rare Californian plants and animals and no less than 15 natural habitats. According to the on site museum, it’s also where the owners of Sunset magazine enjoyed the robust, outdoorsy life that kept them young at heart.
No preserve is complete without a dirt pile
After visiting today, I’d say it’s also a great destination for little boys. It has everything they need: large animals (horses), ducks, woodpeckers, eagles, logs to climb on, mud to squelch near the pond, and a flat but varied trail system to run along and explore. There was also a man in the car park wearing a snake (I think he’s there the first sunday afternoon of every month).
Quail Hollow Ranch has a couple of trails but they’re all fairly short and easy for little ones to hike. We, or rather The Monkey, selected the Discovery Trail for our hike. It was actually a useful introduction to the preserve as it took us around the ranch, a little way up the hill, through the valley and round to the duck pond and picnic area. There are a couple of other trails we plan to check out on future visits. The preserve also has a cute little museum with some interesting natural history exhibits. As usual, we didn’t meet any other families when we were there, which was a shame as this is a great spot to take toddlers to let them roam free (no traffic, no glaring natural dangers etc). And it’s free.
neat trees.
Not sure it’s worth a day trip from Silicon Valley, but if you’re heading out that way it’s a great spot to check out.
The Outdoors Parent 
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